Things I love Thursday - 2/17

Hey hey, look at that its Thursday and I have a hot minute to blog about what I love this week.

Life has been revolving around

a. midterms, for both me, and the undergraduate students in Toxicology, the course I am the graduate student instructor for.  You'd be surprised how much prep goes into writing and preparing an exam for a group of 60 students to take.  Their exam is going on right now, I have another exam in a week, and a paper due on tuesday.  Fun stuff.

b. Spring break prep!  although it is not nearly spring, The semester break at Michigan occurs next week and I am headed on a Bahamas cruise for 4 days.  very excited for sun and relaxation!

Anyway, here's what I'm loving:

clarisonic mia 

i snagged this baby from beauty.com for 20% off and i am in love.  while i have yet to see results (they say a sin cycle is 20 days, and im only on day 8 with the clarisonic), it has made me notskip a single face-washing.  so thats definitely a great start.

mott's fruit snacks

so ignore the crappy picture that someone from amazon took of the costco box that they are reselling, but these babies rock.  i dont feel bad eating them because they're made from a bunch of fruit and vegetable juices and taste great.  

lululemon slipless headband

i'll be honest, i have yet to use this in a workout situation but just from lounging around the house, its perfect.  stays in place and doesnt budge

30 rock s4 on netflix instant play

i always forget how FUNNY this show is.  its my go to for background while eating dinner, or other similarly mindless tasks.  liz lemon, you are my hero.

I Love Breakfast

oh hello blog, nice to see you again.

I have a bit of time as I gather enough strength to stand in the shower for ten minutes.  I just got back from the great ass-kicking yoga session at the Lululemon Ann Arbor Showroom.

So now I'm just enjoying my barney smoothie and some applesauce.

What's a barney smoothie? So glad you asked!

This baby is just a combo of the following ingredients:

baby spinach, almond milk, blueberries

so green + purple = barney.
I always want to wear green and purple clothes together, but I'm always reminded that I will just look like barney.

so things have been busy. i think january is always a breeze and then february is just NEVER ENDING TO DO LIST. thankfully i have a bahamas cruise to look forward to at the end of the month ;)

for the past week, however, I have been making AWESOME breakfasts. lots of variety, lots of healthy delicious-ness. good stuff, all around.

I love breakfast - just like the adorable little girl in knocked up

Knocked Up - Ben Tells The Kids That They Are Having A Baby - Click here for another funny movie.

but breakfast is one of those meals that can be hard to squeeze in. luckily everything i eat is easy. and i don't have class until 11:30 every day, so I'm allowed to have lazy mornings.

Regardless, here's what I've been eating.

trader joe's british muffins - whole wheat cinnamon raisin

trader joe's has probably had these forever, but i just discovered them last time i was there.
i LOVE cinnamon raisin english muffins, but am always bummed that there's not a whole wheat version.  boy was i wrong.  these are perfect toasted with a pat of earth balance spread.  also not sure who desraeli and gladstone are, but i kind of love them.

trader joe's oats&flax + org blueberries

This was the sample at trader joe's the other day.  I had already picked up the organic blueberries because organic fruits are so hard to find in the winter.  and then i tried the sample of the oats + blueberries and fell in love.  such a simple delicious breakfast.

trader joe's multigrain waffles + dark chocolate dreams

Multigrain waffles with dark chocolate dreams.  LOVE.  also delish with bananas, but i didn't have any on this day :(

Obviously, trader joe's rocks for breakfast foods.
And seriously, none of these take longer than 5 minutes to make.

Things I Love Thursday - 2/3

This has been the laziest week of my life.  Thanks to the tuesday night "blizzard" and the lack of anything of significance being due this week, I have done very very little.


I have gone to the gym consistently though!  that's good?  


and i finished "something blue" by emily giffen -- bringing my 2011 book total to..... two.  Woooo!


Surprisingly, despite my doing very little I do have quite a bit to blog about, but no motivation to type.  


So we'll start it out easy with the things I love:

evol burritos

i have always been a fan of the convenience of frozen burritos, but i can't say i've ever loved them.  i love evol the burritos (which shouldn't be surprising since their name is love backwards!)

my favorite type is the regular old beans rice and cheese.  i'm a simple girl, what can i say.

plus they're a company with "whole food" morals, which i can always get behind.

and they have an awesome website!  

An (essentially) empty email inbox

Do you see that?!  1 unread message in my gmail!?  i dont think that has ever happened before!  and to be fair, the one unread message is a myspace deactivation link as a reminder than i need to save the pictures on there and then DELETE DELETE.  because when you search 'lauren alysse michigan' that's what comes up.  not good for potential employer/googlers!

regardless, the empty inbox is so freeing.  I LOVE IT.

Cancelled Class

although UofM does not have snow days, my Professor decided to cancel class on wednesday anyway!  so that meant i did not have to give a presentation that i was definitely not prepared for.  110% YAY.  And luckily class was cancelled about 2 hours after it started snowing, and before it was realized that we weren't going to get nearly as much snow as predicted.

Glee-inspired Nails

So the Glee Sephora by OPI collection made its way onto my nails this week.  I painted on Sunday night as well as Tuesday night during the snow storm and I'm so in love.

This is "I'm a Gleek"

and this is "Sue Vs. Shue"

Pom Cranberry Juice

i've been searching and searching since before 2011, and i FINALLY FOUND IT.

soooo delish.  my two favorite superfruits.

Celebration Shopping

After the law school acceptance packet on Monday, I thought a little celebratory spending was in order.

Although my original intention for the trip to the mall was to return a few things for my mom, I ended up in a few stores, spending much more than anticipated.

My most exciting purchases:

Glee Nail Polish - Sephora by OPI

I am a GLEEK.  i love love this show, and although I recieved an email about some glee nail polish, I didn't actually look that much into it and therefore was completely shocked when I arrived at sephora to see this on the nail polish display.  I also recently became nail polish obsessed - I never painted my nails before last spring, but now I'm sad when they chip or are bare.  Although suzi skis just made its way onto my nails on thursday morning, I'll be doing one of these babies (either miss bossy pants, the rachel berry-esque pink or the gleek out lime) tonight.  don't worry, I'll post pics!
This mini-pack comes with 3 exclusive colors (the glittery topcoat - celebacy club, the navy blue - sue vs shue, and the coral - express yourself to yourself), and there are also four other colors to complete the collection - a pink, purple, glittery grey, and peacock green.  I didn't realize that I was missing 4 colors when buying the little one, so I might have to go back for more.  We'll see ;)

Reebok EasyTone Reeinspire

I'm always interested in things that claim to do this thing for your health or that thing for your health (see PowerBalance bracelets) (also if you really want to buy one of these, order it from amazon where they are WAY cheaper.  dont be dumb like me).  I always take their claims with a grain of salt, but I'm still always drawn in, just enough to justify the purchase if its something I want.  So now, see the EasyTones.  Luckily these are pretty cute for tennies, and a steal of a deal (1/2 off at von maur!), and I think that their weird circles will at least help with my balance, even if they fail to actually shape my buns.  and with the power balance band, I should be a yoga queen. 

Things I love Thursday - 1/27

Things I Love Thursday

 Acceptance packets from MICHIGAN LAW

Suzi Skis in the Pyrenees 

this is technically a charcoal grey, but in certain light its blue-ish, others its deep deep green, and i even get purple sometimes and i LOVE it

 (oh and thats me!  i dont think i've introduced my face to the blogging world yet, but there i am!  hi blogging world!)

source

broccoli

apparently this cruciferous veg is in season?  whatever i love it.  esp dipped in humus or ranch.  

trader joe's has bags of it in organic form, already washed and cut.  LOVE IT.  

Pretty Little Liars

hello guilty pleasure.  i want to have ezra's babies, spencer's wardrobe, and creepy anonymous texts

(here)

  lululemon wunder unders

holy cow, most comfortable piece of clothing EVER.  i am so not a proponent of leggings as pants, but i will do anything to work these babies into my wardrobe.  i've worn them with dresses, under pants - i've even branched out into long-sweater + leggings wearing.  look at me, living on the edge.  they rock.  so worth the price tag.

Things I've learned 1

Things I've learned...

 - asking your boyfriend if they have dual flush toilets in the engineering buildings is a silly question

source

 

 -the best way to get into law school is to submit your  letter of continued interest.  your acceptance packet will have been mailed 2 days before.

-sometimes working on the cancer floor of a children's hospital takes its emotional toll

-gorilla pose is incredible

source

  
-donate your baby's cord blood.  the chance that someone with cancer will need it is greater than the chance your child will need it. 

-outback salmon + sweet potato is a pretty awesome celebratory dinner

-i love "all those pretty lights" by andrew belle

-working out consistently is its own reward

-attempting to not get sick when your roommate is sick is tough work. 

-it is possible to have super delicious "dessert-like" foods.

plain greek yogurt, frozen organic wild blueberries, organic dark chocolate chips + a touch of honey

 

Crochet Motivation

I was on etsy the other day looking up narwhal things. because lets be honest, narwhals are pretty freaking cool animals. a lot of my love stems from mr. narwhal of elf fame, but I've always loved whales, and narwhals are some of the coolest (along with belugas, humpbacks, and porpoises). etsy is honestly the best for little animal crafts. 

And I came across this...

These two esty patterns are the motivation for me to become better at crocheting:

narwhal!!

manatee!

These crochet pattern are available from needleNoodles, on etsy here!

How adorable would they be on a keychain?

These little animal patterns along with the huge desire to make one of these:

pattern can be found here: hooks and knives

will hopefully be enough motivation to get crocheting to the point where I can handle the single-crochet!

Also this:

makes me wish I knew how to knit as well.
looooove cable knit
pattern here: winter knits kit

So hopefully I can get my act together, and find the time to make adorable craft-y things.